16 Quirky Jobs Around the World You May Be Interested In

Panda hugger – China

China’s Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre has been looking for people who’ll “spend 365 days with the pandas and sharing in their joys and sorrows”, paying them about $32,000 a year to cuddle, feed, clean, and play with baby pandas.

Cuddle girl – Japan

If cuddling pandas isn’t your type, you might be interested in cuddling with a human instead – for a price. Tokyo, Japan’s Akihabara district is filled with cuddle cafes which lets their customers have a chance to cuddle with beautiful girls with no strings attached. The cheapest cuddle for 3,000 yen lasts for 20 minutes and some add-ons like “staring at each other” costs 1,000 yen.

Churrasquerio (Steakhouse chef) – Brazil

A Brazilian barbecue called churrasco won’t be a legitimate churrasco in a churrascaria (restaurant) without thechurrasquerios (barbecue chef) – got it? Barbecuing meat is a serious job that churrasquerios are treated as specialized knowledge workers in the US.

Manual Scavenger – India

Manual scavenging is a term used to describe the removing of human excrement from dry toilets and sewers using basic tools such as thin boards, buckets, and baskets lined with sacks carried on the head. Basically, those who do this job are called manual scavengers. The job has been banned in India for decades, but continues to be an inescapable job for the Dalits, also known as the untouchables, the lowest rank of Indian society.

Mourners for rent – China

In China, absence of tears during funerals means that the deceased wasn’t loved, and is a disgrace to the family. To show everyone that the deceased is loved, families hire actors to cry at funerals especially when the deceased’s relatives are too busy to be present. The hired actors, mostly young women, wail loudly with full makeup and wearing traditional clothing while encouraging other visitors to join the cryfest. A man n UK was inspired by this odd job that he even made his own rent-a-mourner company in the country.